Bailey's Bay 132-5 Thanks to a century from Albert Steede combined with a timely half century from veteran Allan Richardson, champions St. David's were able to advance to the second round of the Eastern Counties with this draw against Bailey's Bay at Sea Breeze Oval on Saturday.

But the dull draw will almost certainly lead to more calls for new rules to ensure a result during a one-day match. This would prevent any reigning cup holders from demonstrating tactics that will enable them to hang onto the trophy by merely drawing.

Eastern Counties are the only one of the three Counties that have refused to adopt limited overs in their competition.

Steede hammered 111 and Richardson chipped in with 59 as the pair partnered in a third wicket stand of 178 that tore the heart out of Bay when the home side had the visitors reeling.

The duo turned an agonising early period for their team around after the champions had lost young opener Chris Foggo and Graham Fox, both for ducks, with just nine runs scored. And when their stand came to an end after Richardson was dismissed, St. David's were comfortably placed at 187-3 and what looked like an unbeatable position.

The heroics of Steede and Richardson, the feature of the day, was later to be obscured by wacky counties policies that led to an uninspiring continuation of play once Bay was left with just 21 overs to reach their winning target of 261 -- something almost impossible for them to pull off.

But before the game degenerated into a dour debacle when a draw was the only possible inevitable result, fans did witness some good batting.

Bay though paid dearly for missing Steede before he had scored, Irving Burgess putting him down off Anthony Braithwaite's third ball of the game at backward forward point.

Like the brilliant batsman that fans have come to know, Steede rose to the challenge, settled down and remained unruffled by his escape to soldier and help to lead his team to a position of stability.

He and Richardson knocked the spirit out of the bowling attack that was inspired by the early wickets, and after an hour had Bay skipper Charlie Marshall struggling -- and often bewildered by a lack of ideas on how to halt the flow of runs.

Steede, who batted for 303 minutes, finished with a six and 14 fours as St.

David's headed towards a formidable score and, more importantly to them, occupied the wicket long enough to ensure that Bay would receive insufficient batting time to have a chance at winning. And he did all of this despite having to battle off cramp and having to leave the field late in his innings before returning.

When St. David's innings came to an end at 5.17 p.m. the tempo had already demised with a result having long looked doubtful. Clarkie Trott was the best Bay bowler with four for 41 off 29 overs, including 11 maidens.

With the game being killed by prolonged batting by the champions, Bay still were ambitious enough to make an attempt to play aggressive shots when they batted at 5.32 p.m.

DYMANIC DUO -- Allan Richardson (left) and Albert Steede tore apart Bailey's Bay bowlers on Saturday.